Remote viewing (or RV) is the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen target using subjective means, in particular, extra-sensory perception (ESP) or "sensing with mind".[2] Typically a remote viewer is expected to give information about an object, event, person or location that is hidden from physical view and separated at some distance.[27][28] The term was coined in the 1970s by Targ and Puthoff, while working as researchers at SRI, to differentiate it from clairvoyance.[29][30]

A number of scientific reviews of the SRI (and later) experiments on remote viewing found no credible evidence that remote viewing works, and the topic of remote viewing is regarded as pseudoscience.[2][35][36][37]

The psychologists David Marks and Richard Kammann attempted to replicate Targ and Puthoff’s remote viewing experiments and disputed the claims that the experiments were successful - for example, they were able to successfully identify targets from cues given by the investigators and recorded in the transcripts. They concluded that "Until remote viewing can be confirmed in conditions which prevent sensory cueing the conclusions of Targ and Puthoff remain an unsubstantiated hypothesis."[38] The researchers said that Targ and Puthoff had not provided unpublished transcripts when requested, but that after obtaining them from a judge in the study they were able to find "a wealth of cues."[39]

Remote viewing was popularized in the 1990s upon the declassification of certain documents related to the Stargate Project, a $20 million research program that had started in 1975 and was sponsored by the U.S. government, in an attempt to determine any potential military application of psychic phenomena. The program was terminated in 1995 after it failed to produce any useful intelligence information. David Goslin, of the American Institutes for Research said, "There's no documented evidence it had any value to the intelligence community".[42]

A variety of scientific studies of remote viewing have been conducted. Some earlier, less sophisticated experiments produced positive results but they had invalidating flaws.[36] None of the more recent experiments have shown positive results when conducted under properly controlled conditions.[29][42][43] This lack of successful experiments has led the mainstream scientific community to reject remote viewing, based upon the absence of an evidence base, the lack of a theory which would explain remote viewing, and the lack of experimental techniques which can provide reliably positive results.[37]

Targ and Puthoff both expressed the belief that Uri Geller, retired police commissioner Pat Price and artist Ingo Swann all had genuine psychic abilities.[48] However, flaws were found with the controls in the experiments and Geller was caught using sleight of hand on many other occasions.[49] The SRI tests gave Geller substantial control over the procedures used to test him, with few limits on his behavior during the test.[50]

In 1982, Targ with Keith Harary and Anthony White formed a company, Delphi Associates, to sell psychic consulting services to individuals and businesses.[22][51] In the book Mind Race,[52] Targ and Harary claimed that all nine silver futures predictions made at Delphi in 1982 were correct; however, a later attempt failed.[53] According to Henry Gordon "As with most psychic claims, there is little documentation to back them up".[54]Ray Hyman has written "Targ and Harary's much-publicized case for the reality of psi and the validity of remote viewing is filled with exaggerated and unsupported conclusions. Their careless scholarship leads to new deceptions."[51]

Joan Fischer Targ was the sister of former world chess champion Bobby Fischer.[55] In 2004 Targ assisted Fischer, who had been a fugitive in the United States since violating a trade embargo with his 1992 victory over Boris Spassky.[58] While Fischer was detained in Japan with extradition pending, Targ worked to support a claim of German citizenship for Fischer.[59]

Targ, who is legally blind, is an avid motorcyclist and has published a memoir on his experiences as a "blind biker".[60]